On pro football.

Lots of time for Bucs to repeat

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are defensive in a different way this year. They are defending themselves more than their NFL title.

"The story can't be written yet, man," coach Jon Gruden said.

Only 4-4 at halftime, the Bucs prefer to think of the season as half full rather than half empty.

"The first thought that came to my mind is that we are 4-4 and we faced a 4-4 football team in the Super Bowl," linebacker Derrick Brooks said, referring to last year's modest start by the AFC champion Oakland Raiders. "Why can't that be us this year? Right now it's anyone's game."

It's not the Raiders' game. They are 2-6 and threatening to jump ship on coach Bill Callahan. What a difference a half-year makes.

It has flown by as fast as a Dante Hall kick return. Hall's record four touchdowns on kick returns in four weeks propelled the Kansas City Chiefs to an unlikely 8-0 start. The Chiefs have a player named R-Kal Truluck, which pretty much sums up the first half of the season for a lot of NFL teams.

For the Atlanta Falcons and New York Jets--two preseason favorites--it was bad luck. Quarterbacks Michael Vick and Chad Pennington snapped leg and wrist bones respectively, ending their teams' seasons before they started.

How will it end?

It still says here Tennessee and Tampa Bay in the Feb. 1 Super Bowl in Houston, although not without considerable argument. The Indianapolis Colts already have beaten both teams once and have a chance to sweep the Titans Dec. 7.

The Titans are host to the Bucs Dec. 28 in the regular-season finale, which could be a preview or just a meaningless exercise.

The Bucs are lucky they still play in the NFC, where the cream has yet to rise to the top. At 4-4, the Bucs are no more than two games behind anybody. The Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, Carolina Panthers and a leftover from the NFC East will drag the Bucs along, but no division is settled.

The first half went so fast that three of the best games happened while a bunch of fans weren't looking. They occurred in the wee hours of Tuesday mornings, after many Monday night viewers had turned in.

The defining game of the first half was Oct. 6-7, when the Colts made the greatest late-game comeback in history, scoring 28 fourth-quarter points against the Bucs and winning 38-35 in overtime. It stamped Peyton Manning and the Colts as true contenders and exposed the Bucs as vulnerable for the first time. Somebody should offer a daytime rerun.

Runner-up was the Patriots' 30-26 victory in Denver that started Monday night and seems like it just ended. The Broncos thought they had won it on a punt return only to watch the Patriots take an intentional safety to gain field position for their final touchdown drive. The unconventional strategy worked perfectly for Bill Belichick, coach of the half-year.

The third phantom game lasted six minutes short of four hours, long enough for Bill Parcells and his Dallas Cowboys to beat his former team, the New York Giants, 35-32 in overtime and remind the league that he's not only back, he's good.

At 62, Parcells is only the second-oldest coach in the league behind Kansas City's Dick Vermeil, 67, as football follows the lead of baseball's 72-year-old World Series-winning manager, Jack McKeon of the Florida Marlins.

Hall's returns were the most spectacular accomplishments by one individual, but he had to share the stage with three others:

- Manning's six touchdown passes against New Orleans were prelude to his comeback against Tampa Bay. He trails Tennessee's Steve McNair and Minnesota's Daunte Culpepper in passer rating.

- Minnesota's Randy Moss stayed slightly ahead of Indianapolis' Marvin Harrison and left San Francisco's Terrell Owens in the dust as the league's best receiver. St. Louis' Torry Holt joined Moss with nine touchdown catches and more total yards.

The Chiefs' perfect record notwithstanding, no team appears unbeatable and no team is winless, although only about half the teams have a realistic shot at the postseason. This is the reality of pro football in its expanded, free agent state of constant flux. There are few great teams and more than a few decent ones that could catch a break, a fumble, a replay reversal, a healthy lineup and go all the way.

The Chiefs haven't had a single starter go down with an injury. Yet.

"Chances are we're a playoff team, but it doesn't mean we're going to be a Super Bowl team," Vermeil said. "But when you're 8-0, you haven't done many things wrong."

Gruden, who won it all in his first season in Tampa Bay, is tired of linking the ancient history of 10 months ago to what's happening today. In many respects, this is like his first year with the Bucs again.

"You don't want to forget about a Super Bowl championship run and a team," Gruden said. "But we have between 20 and 25 new guys contributing on this year's squad who weren't here then."

So even if the Bucs repeat, it won't be a repeat for a lot of their players.

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Looking ahead

At the midway point of the season, here's how Tribune pro football reporter Don Pierson sees the playoff teams and award winners: